* Speculator trimmed gold longs as prices range bounded
* Copper slightly raised longs
*April 27 (Reuters) – Money managers in gold futures and
options cut net long positions in the week ended April 24 for
their third decline in four weeks, as the precious metal’s price
failed to break out of a narrow range.
Speculators trimmed their bullish gold bets by 4,675
contracts to 107,600 contracts, data from the Commodity Futures
Trading Commission (CFTC) showed on Friday.
During the period covered by the report, the yellow metal
had failed to break above resistance at $1,650 an ounce, as a
strong run of U.S. economic data dashed hopes of further U.S.
monetary easing.
The group also trimmed their bullish bets in silver, cutting
their length in silver by 2,635 contracts to 10,756 contracts,
the lowest level since the first week of January.
However, speculators raised copper length by 14 contracts to
2,217 lots, as the decrease in short positions in managed money
slightly offset the decline in bullish bets in that category,
CFTC data showed.
Still, the net length in copper was near the lowest level
since Jan. 17, as renewed European sovereign debt fears
triggered economic worries, pressuring demand for key industrial
metal copper.
